Hangtime

Hangtime is the delay between the moment a called party answers the phone and the moment they are connected to a live agent. During this gap, the person who answered hears silence (dead air) while VICIdial detects the answer, optionally runs AMD analysis, and bridges the call to an available agent. Excessive hangtime leads to a poor caller experience, increased hangups, and potential compliance issues.

How It Works in VICIdial

Several factors contribute to hangtime in VICIdial. The primary sources are:

AMD processing delay: When AMD is enabled, the system analyzes the first 1-3 seconds of audio after the call connects to determine if a live person or answering machine answered. This analysis period is the largest contributor to hangtime. During this time, the called party says “hello” and hears nothing in return.

Agent availability lag: In predictive dialing mode, the dialer may connect a call before an agent is fully available. The system must find a free agent, reserve them, and bridge the audio — a process that typically takes 100-500 milliseconds but can extend to several seconds during high-volume periods when agent availability is tight.

Network and processing latency: The time required for call signaling between VICIdial’s Asterisk servers, carriers, and the PSTN adds small but cumulative delays. Server CPU load during peak dialing can also increase processing time.

VICIdial provides a “dead call” audio message that can be played to the called party during hangtime — a brief announcement such as “please hold for an important call” — which signals that the call is intentional and reduces the chance the person hangs up during the gap.

Why It Matters

Hangtime directly impacts contact rates and lead quality. Studies show that called parties who experience more than 2 seconds of silence after answering are significantly more likely to hang up before an agent connects. Each second of hangtime can reduce effective contact rates by 5-10%, wasting the dials that the predictive dialer worked to optimize.

From a compliance perspective, the FCC requires that calls be connected to an agent within 2 seconds of answer, and extended dead air can be interpreted as evidence of robocalling. Minimizing hangtime requires balancing AMD accuracy against detection speed, maintaining appropriate auto dial levels to ensure agent availability, and keeping server infrastructure properly sized for the dialing volume.